IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/ajagec/v106y2024i2p739-778.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Diversification and resilience of firms in the agrifood supply chain

Author

Listed:
  • Andrew W. Stevens
  • Jim Teal

Abstract

Are diversified firms more resilient to negative market shocks than specialized firms? We answer this question in the context of the COVID‐19 pandemic by analyzing data from small‐ and medium‐sized firms in the U.S. agrifood supply chain. We first develop revenue‐based measures of firms' vertical (across supply‐chain segment) and horizontal (within supply‐chain segment) diversification. We then compare post pandemic outcomes of more diversified and less diversified firms using several inverse‐probability weighting techniques. We find that vertical diversification reduces firms' resilience, whereas horizontal diversification increases firms' resilience.

Suggested Citation

  • Andrew W. Stevens & Jim Teal, 2024. "Diversification and resilience of firms in the agrifood supply chain," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 106(2), pages 739-778, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:ajagec:v:106:y:2024:i:2:p:739-778
    DOI: 10.1111/ajae.12398
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/ajae.12398
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/ajae.12398?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Evan Rawley & Timothy S. Simcoe, 2010. "Diversification, Diseconomies of Scope, and Vertical Contracting: Evidence from the Taxicab Industry," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 56(9), pages 1534-1550, September.
    2. Keisuke Hirano & Guido W. Imbens & Geert Ridder, 2003. "Efficient Estimation of Average Treatment Effects Using the Estimated Propensity Score," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 71(4), pages 1161-1189, July.
    3. Berry, Charles H, 1971. "Corporate Growth and Diversification," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 14(2), pages 371-384, October.
    4. Dormady, Noah & Roa-Henriquez, Alfredo & Rose, Adam, 2019. "Economic resilience of the firm: A production theory approach," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 208(C), pages 446-460.
    5. Ahmad Zia Wahdat & Jayson L. Lusk, 2023. "The Achilles heel of the U.S. food industries: Exposure to labor and upstream industries in the supply chain," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 105(2), pages 624-643, March.
    6. Evan Rawley, 2010. "Diversification, coordination costs, and organizational rigidity: evidence from microdata," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(8), pages 873-891, August.
    7. Gollop, Frank M & Monahan, James L, 1991. "A Generalized Index of Diversification: Trends in U.S. Manufacturing," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 73(2), pages 318-330, May.
    8. Lang, Larry H P & Stulz, Rene M, 1994. "Tobin's q, Corporate Diversification, and Firm Performance," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 102(6), pages 1248-1280, December.
    9. Brian Buhr, 2002. "Vertical diversification in the pork industry: a portfolio theory approach," Agricultural Finance Review, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 62(2), pages 163-177, November.
    10. Rulon D. Pope & Richard Prescott, 1980. "Diversification in Relation to Farm Size and Other Socioeconomic Characteristics," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 62(3), pages 554-559.
    11. Teece, David J., 1980. "Economies of scope and the scope of the enterprise," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 1(3), pages 223-247, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Hadachek, Jeffrey & Ma, Meilin, 2024. "Risk Externalities in Vertical Supply Chains," 2024 Annual Meeting, July 28-30, New Orleans, LA 343748, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    2. Timothy J. Richards & Zachariah Rutledge & Marcelo Castillo, 2024. "Labor shortages and agricultural trucking rates," Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics/Revue canadienne d'agroeconomie, Canadian Agricultural Economics Society/Societe canadienne d'agroeconomie, vol. 72(2), pages 105-129, June.
    3. Beck, Anne & Lim, Sunghun & Taglioni, Daria, 2024. "Understanding firm networks in global agricultural value chains," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    4. Ann M. Furbush & Anna Josephson & Talip Kilic & Jeffrey D. Michler, 2024. "Coping or Hoping? Livelihood Diversification and Food Insecurity in the COVID-19 Pandemic," Papers 2409.02285, arXiv.org.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Weiss, Christoph R. & Briglauer, Wolfgang, 2000. "Determinants and Dynamics of Farm Diversification," FE Working Papers 0002, Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel, Department of Food Economics and Consumption Studies.
    2. Martin, John D. & Sayrak, Akin, 2003. "Corporate diversification and shareholder value: a survey of recent literature," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 9(1), pages 37-57, January.
    3. Lee, Hyunmin, 2023. "Converging technology to improve firm innovation competencies and business performance: Evidence from smart manufacturing technologies," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).
    4. Davide Vannoni, 2000. "Diversification, the Resource View and Productivity: Evidence from Italian Manufacturing Firms," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 27(1), pages 47-63, March.
    5. Mo Chen & Aseem Kaul & Brian Wu, 2019. "Adaptation across multiple landscapes: Relatedness, complexity, and the long run effects of coordination in diversified firms," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(11), pages 1791-1821, November.
    6. Mishra, Ashok K. & El-Osta, Hisham S., 2002. "Risk Management Through Enterprise Diversification: A Farm-Level Analysis," 2002 Annual meeting, July 28-31, Long Beach, CA 19711, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    7. David J. Bryce & Sidney G. Winter, 2009. "A General Interindustry Relatedness Index," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 55(9), pages 1570-1585, September.
    8. Oliver Hahl & Jaekyung Ha, 2020. "Committed Diversification: Why Authenticity Insulates Against Penalties for Diversification," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 31(1), pages 1-22, January.
    9. Vassilis Droucopoulos & Theodore Papadogonas, 1999. "'Stick to the knitting' vs. 'the mysteriously potent charm of diversification': the Greek evidence," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 20(4), pages 217-227.
    10. Zhigang Qin & Wen Liu & Maonan Chen, 2022. "Corporate Tax Avoidance and Firm Diversification: Evidence from Chinese Listed Firms," Asian Economic Journal, East Asian Economic Association, vol. 36(1), pages 3-21, March.
    11. Jin Lung Peng & Lih Ru Chen & Jennifer L. Wang & Larry Y. Tzeng, 2017. "Diversification Versus Strategic Focus: Evidence from Insurance Intermediaries in Taiwan," The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, Palgrave Macmillan;The Geneva Association, vol. 42(3), pages 530-555, July.
    12. Hutzschenreuter, Thomas & Horstkotte, Julian, 2013. "Performance effects of international expansion processes: The moderating role of top management team experiences," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 259-277.
    13. Jonathan R. Clark & Robert S. Huckman, 2012. "Broadening Focus: Spillovers, Complementarities, and Specialization in the Hospital Industry," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 58(4), pages 708-722, April.
    14. Davide Vannoni, 2000. "The diversifield firm: non formal theories versus formal models," ECONOMIA E POLITICA INDUSTRIALE, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2000(106).
    15. Kwon, Taek Ho & Bae, Sung C. & Park, Soon Hong, 2021. "The interactions of corporate sales growth and diversification strategy: Cross-country evidence," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    16. Sara Parker‐Lue & Marvin Lieberman, 2020. "The impact of diversification on task performance: Evidence from kidney transplant centers," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(7), pages 1169-1190, July.
    17. Gerard Hoberg & Gordon Phillips, 2018. "Conglomerate Industry Choice and Product Language," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(8), pages 3735-3755, August.
    18. Chien-Ming Chen, 2017. "Supply Chain Strategies and Carbon Intensity: The Roles of Process Leanness, Diversification Strategy, and Outsourcing," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 143(3), pages 603-620, July.
    19. Patty Duijm & Ilke Van Beveren, 2022. "Product diversification as a performance boosting strategy? Drivers and impact of diversification strategies in the property‐liability insurance industry," Risk Management and Insurance Review, American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 25(3), pages 303-328, September.
    20. Friberg, Richard, 2019. "All the bottles in one basket? Diversification and product portfolio composition," CEPR Discussion Papers 14119, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:ajagec:v:106:y:2024:i:2:p:739-778. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://doi.org/10.1111/(ISSN)1467-8276 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.